Birthday Girl
Will her wish come true after all the candles are blown out? Starring Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Mathieu Kassovitz, Vincent Cassel.
John (Ben Chaplin) is a responsible and dedicated banker that
keeps getting the same old boring yearly review. He lives
modestly by himself in a house that's quite clean, organized,
and in a good family neighborhood. His only companions are
an infestation of ants, girlie magazines, videos and the
daily peek into a web site called "From Russia with Love"
that caters to men seeking Russian woman for marriage.
John tiresomely and disappointedly searches for that one
woman who stands out among the others. John eventually
finds the woman he's been searching for, and arranges to
pick her up at the airport. Her name is Nadia (Nicole Kidman)
and she's everything he desires and more. However, John’s one
main request for this bride-to-be was that she must speak
English, and this is where Nadia fell short. John tries,
but it just doesn't work out with Nadia the way he had
envisioned. He wants to send her back to Russia but nobody
from the website will return his calls, and Nadia isn't
going to give up easily. Instead, she uses the universal
language of love to scramble John's thoughts of sending
her back to Russia; it worked amazingly!
Soon, Nadia learns a few words in English, one of them
being "birthday," her birthday, and she'd like to
have a party. Well, party she has and the surprise is on
John when Nadia's cousin Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz) and his
musician friend Alexei (Vincent Cassel) arrive at John's
house to celebrate the happy event. Strange and frightening
events soon take place. Nadia, her cousin, and their friend
are not who they are thought to be. Now, John is faced with many
problems, including robbing his own bank, and trying to
figure out his feelings for Nadia, who happens to be
pregnant, and it's not his baby!
The performances: an interesting role for Nicole Kidman I
found this one to be. She gets to speak with a Russian accent,
mess around with some crazy emotions and characters, and
prove once again that she's a lady of fabulous talent and
very enjoyable to watch in roles that are big or small, elaborate
or just plain strange. She has it all! Ben Chaplin, a
charming, playful man gave another fine performance. I got
the biggest kick out of him, and found him tremendously
appealing when I first saw him in the movie The Truth
About Cats and Dogs. In Birthday Girl he's just
as appealing but on a dark dramatic side, although he has
some funny lines that fit him perfectly.
A crazy, kooky, and interesting movie that takes a spin on
the road of dark comedy. A cast of excellent and exciting
performances made Birthday Girl a bizarre love story
spliced together with dramatic, comedic and some adventurous
intrigue that made me glad I rented it. I also loved the
soundtrack; with music from The Searchers to Rodgers and Hart
and even a performance from Kidman (with Robbie Williams) of
"Somethin’ Stupid," there’s some great sounding stuff in there!
Written by: Lynda Dale MacLean
Reviewers Rating: 6.5
Reader's Rating: 8.40
Reader's Votes: 5
Added: 11-May-2003
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